Paris, Je T'aime
by temari13
Summary: Paris looks the same. But for one man, Paris will never be the same. Not without her.


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I fell in love with the couple Kai and Irene after watching episodes numbers 27, 28, and 29. I cried when she died. She was my favorite Schiff, and I always thought that she had a crush on Kai, and that Kai liked her back. But my dream of seeing them together broke into pieces as Irene did the same. Oh, well. I can write stories about them. Read and review, please, but no cursing in the reviews! Oh, and later in the story, I mention a pink carnation. The meaning of that flower means "I'll never forget you."

The sun was just setting as Miyagusku Kai entered the top of the Eiffel Tower. Walking over to the railing, he leaned against it, stared at the sky. The sky was a mixture of colors, pink and yellow and orange and purple. A slight smile crossed his face.

If he remembered correctly, the sunset looked like this last year, too. And the year before that. And the year before that.

He shifted his position, but still remained by the railing. Paris was beautiful this time of year. It was still warm, and the sunsets were gorgeous. And at this time of day, with the sun disappearing, people were hurrying home to be with their families or friends. Soon, the city of love would be seemingly deserted.

Except for the lovebirds.

Kai sighed. He didn't particularly like being around other people who were obviously in love. It made him think about what he had lost. Or, to be more precise,_ who_ he had lost.

_Irene._

He clutched his shirt. It still hurt. The saying went that time healed all wounds, but in Kai's case, time made things worse. Coming to Paris didn't help, either, but he visited the city every year- right around the same time that Irene had died all those years ago. He did it to keep her memory alive, to show everyone that he still remembered her.

He reminisced about the day he had met her. (It wasn't the first time he had seen her. The first time had been as enemies, since she and her companions had attacked Red Shield's base. He didn't count that because they hadn't introduced themselves.) It had been in this very spot that he had seen her. At first, he'd been suspicious of her, and had followed her around for a better part of the day.

It was during that time that he'd noticed that there was something different about her. When people talked to her, she shied away from them, hiding her face, as if that just by looking at her, they could tell what she really was. Then he had discovered some men attacking her. She did nothing, just stood there, even though she could have killed them in a heartbeat. _"Maybe,"_ he had thought, _"just maybe she's not as bad as I originally thought. Besides...she's kind of cute."_

So he had intervened, thereby saving her from the thugs. He had begun to question her, but was interrupted when the sun came out. The sun, he found out as she collapsed to the ground, was obviously quite dangerous to her health. What he did next stunned himself, and the girl. He carried her to a spot hidden from the sun, and laid her down, placing his beige shirt underneath her head.

When she came to, he began to question her once more. She answered his inquiries, and he began to understand- if only a little- the world she lived in. It was a world filled with fear- fear of the sun, fear of the Thorn, fear of not remaining in someone's memories and therefore being erased from all time.

Kai knew that that would never happen. Now that he had met her, he couldn't get her out of his mind. He had been determined to help her, but instead, had been the cause of her death in a way. He had convinced Saya to give Irene her blood. At first, it had appeared to work, but then the Thorn came back with a vengeance, and Irene literally fell to pieces before his eyes.

Naturally, he felt guilty about it, and saw that Saya felt the same. But there was nothing they could do. Irene was dead.

Before she had died, she had asked Kai to take a walk with her in Paris when she was better. He had agreed, even started planning where he would take her and what they would do. But it was not to be.

He supposed that was why he had begun coming to Paris after Diva had been killed. Being there made him feel close to Irene. And as he walked around the city, and gazed out from the Eiffel Tower, he always thought of her, and how sweet and caring she was.

"Yeah, Irene. You didn't have to worry about not being remembered. I will always remember you." Kai removed a pink carnation from his shirt pocket and smelled it. Then he knelt down, leaving the flower on the floor. He stared at it for a time, then turned to leave. His flight back to Okinawa was leaving at eight tomorrow morning, and he wanted to be well rested for it. With one, final glance at the sliver of sun that was left, he stepped into the stairwell.

The carnation fluttered in the slight breeze the blew. It began to fall, but was stopped when a small, pale hand grasped the stem. Light blonde hair framed her face, and vibrant green eyes glowed as she smiled at the flower. She lifted it to her nose, the sweet fragrance making her smile grow larger.

The last remaining vestige of sunlight played on her hair, turning it golden. The sun sank lower and lower, until it vanished completely. A light rain began to fall. The breeze began to blow gently once more. The carnation floated to the ground as the girl holding it began to fade.

_Kai...thank you..._

"_She's somewhere in the sunlight strong,_

_Her tears are in the falling rain,_

_She calls me in the wind's soft song,_

_And with the flowers she comes again."_

~Richard Le Gallienne~


End file.
